Lets start working! The first thing I did was do some testing with LEDs in the Vacuum tubes. Here is what they look like with an Orange LED in them. Orange is not the final color, yellow is but at the time I didn't have the Yellow LEDs in yet.

Next up was to see how the rust effect paint would workout. First lets try some fan grills.

The Paint

The Grills

Primer and Iron paint

Rust Paint

Since that test was successful I thought I should try an actual piece of the case. The dual PSU bracket seemed like a good test subject.

And the result

I am very confident in the results so I started doing more, but that's in the next update. Stay tuned by subscribing so you can see all the updates!

Its actually a good thing I'm modding this case because I got it used for pretty cheap. You would never get a good looking build out of this beatup case unless you paint/modify it. There are several screws missing, HDD bays missing and the front bezel was bent. I was able to fix the front bezel mostly and I ordered lots of new screws.

First thing to do is remove all of the buttons, connectors and cables.

Remove the mobo try and fans. I was going to not use the fans but I decided to make a midplate to hide them and that has cutouts for the fans. There will also be some Bitspower passthrough fittings for the tubing.

5.25" bays gone and mobo tray rails are out.

And here it is in pieces.

The first thing to do before you paint is get a nice coat of primer on the parts.

Next I started painting all the parts with the Iron base coat. This actually has iron particles in it which react with the Rust paint.

All the small bits.

And the large ones.

Next is the Rust paint. Its actually not paint. Its a chemical which looks more like blue water but you get the picture.

Just after 1 coat you can see it starting to work.

2-3 coats

5ish coats

And the first coat on the 5.25" bays

It starts the reaction only after maybe 5 minutes after being applied.

Lastly I'll leave you with some of my grill plans. I have a friend who does my laser cutting and he will do up a sick CAD drawing for me and I'll share it with all of you.

I'm going to install the 50mm fan on the motherboard so I need a grill to make it look nice. Also since I am keeping the internal 180mm fans I have to keep the side panel vents. I want to dress them up some otherwise they just look funny.
His will obviously look better than what I can draw

I'm super siked to announce that Performance-PCs.com is sponsoring me with some gear.

Now for the unexpected results. I needed to put a clear coat on the rust because it would rub off just like real rust. In doing so the color of the rust went from a orange/red/brown to more of a dark brown. I actually like this color because it looks more like leather. Let me know what you guys think.

Mid plate with clear on it and the mobo tray under it.

I liked it so I keep putting clear coat on the rest of the parts. Here is the mobo tray painted and assembled.

Still has a rust look to it.

And compared to the PSU bracket.

So while I was painting the rest of the parts I decided to start modding the "Thermal Armor" of the mobo.

Tape applied

And marked

And here are the final results. Not sure I'm going to keep the skinny piece between the MOS block and the CPU, it isn't perfectly straight and looks in like its in the way of the design. Not sure yet what I will do.

Not sure how I will paint it but here are a few things I figured out recently.

I'm going to paint all the water blocks gold!
I will paint the 2 ribbed parts of the exterior gold.
The front bezel, back side of the case and side panels will have wood grain vinyl applied.
The Thermal Armor will either be rusted, wood grain or covered in leather!
GPU back plates will be the same as the Thermal Armor.

I have been debating on weather or not I would paint the radiators or not for a while now. Here is what the unpainted rad looks like with the fans and painted grills.

I didn't like the look so I decided to give the rad a make over.

I'm glad the letters are still legible.

With the fan grills on. These outside ones are just for looks and to protect the fins.

Fans attached.

Black fan grills on the inside fans. I was debating on painting the fans and inside grills but it would be a waste. By not painting them I can easily replace them and not worry about having to repaint them at a later time.

Got my MDPC-X sleeving in. I have no idea what the combo will be yet but I have lots of time to think about it.

The Yellow LEDs finally came in along with the 47 Ohm resistors for them.

I pulled one out right away and started testing with the vacuum tubes.

I know they still look a little bit orange in the photos but they are a really nice amber yellow in person. They will look great with the other LED strips I have.

Now for a bit of sponsor news. I was talking to Bitspower several months ago and all of a sudden, they stopped replying to me. Well just a few days ago they finally wrote back and we are in talks again for parts. I hope to get all my fittings and the pump top from them.

I also finally got EK to bite. I started talking shop with them. Not sure all what they will be providing but I'm hoping for at least GPU blocks since PPCs took care of my radiators.

What's coming next?

I'm going to finish modding the "thermal armor" on the mobo this weekend. I want to get a nice clean fit.

I ordered a few sheets of aluminium to make a sturdy midplate. (There will probably be acrylic on top of it. I have not decided yet)

I need to do more research into "wood veneer". Someone suggested that instead of using vinyl to give the case a more natural look. After looking at the prices, its not much more than the vinyl so I'm thinking hard about it. Here are 2 that I am looking at.

That's it for today. Hopefully I can get some more done this weekend since its a long weekend but there isn't much left to do on the inside. I need to decide/figure out the veneer situation so I can get the outside done. Oh and I'm waiting for gold paint to arrive. Once I get that I can do the water blocks and some of the case exterior.